Captain Few's article hit on some points that have been running around in the back of my mind for some time. Namely, what do you do when the civilian population hates you?

It is expected that in COIN operations, we will often be looked on unfavorably. We try to win over the population by being the good guys, protecting them from insurgent atrocities and helping develop the economy and basic services to improve life.

But what if the large majority of the population hates you with an ideological fervor? What if they are willing to take our goodwill and throw it back in our faces, ignoring what benefits we may bring them? We want their cooperation, but sometimes just giving benefits won't bring it, and will in fact be seen as weakness (just as troops don't want to be coddled . . ).

Perhaps the ideal way to handle such a situation is to undermine the society economically, developing trading relations (through second or third parties most likely) that corrode the ideological base and make them dependent on products or services we provide (or can control). This is a long term solution, though, and the grunts on the ground will need something more immediate.

So (in my roundabout way) what I'm asking is, are there times when you have to 'get tough' with the civilian population? If so, how tough do you - can you - get?